In agriculture, mowing attachments are used in order to cut stalk-like crops such as corn or grain plants off the ground of a field and to transport said plants to a forage harvester that carries the machine and in which the plants are chopped and delivered to a forage box on a trailer. Such mowing attachments feature a plurality of mowing and intake devices that are arranged laterally adjacent to one another and operate independently of rows, namely in the form of conveyor drums that rotate about the vertical axis and feature conveyor disks each having a plurality of teeth distributed around radially outer regions, with adjacent teeth defining intermediate recesses, in which the plant stalks are accommodated, as well as cutting disks that are arranged underneath the conveyor disks and serve for cutting the plant stalks off the ground. In this respect, we refer to the prior art according to DE 10 2006 048 659 A1, in which a plurality of conveyor disks with teeth distributed around their edges are arranged on top of one another on a drum. Strippers engage in the intermediate space between the conveyor disks that are arranged in vertical succession, wherein said strippers are respectively composed of horizontal upper plates, horizontal lower plates and intermediately arranged vertical guide tabs. The strippers remove the crop from the recesses of the conveyor disks; the crop is then transported away by means of additional conveyor drums and/or mowing and intake devices and fed into the intake channel of a forage harvester. DE 195 35 453 A1 shows a similar arrangement of the conveyor disks, but with a rotating stripper that is arranged vertically between the conveyor disks and the rotational axis of which is situated within the enveloping circle of the conveyor disks.
Conveyors with a plurality of conveyor disks that are arranged on a drum at a distance from one another and have teeth distributed around their radially outer regions are also used in devices for harvesting hay, in which they are arranged downstream of a pick-up drum equipped with tines in order to convey the crop into a bale forming chamber of a baling press or the loading area of a forage box. Here too, the conveyor disks usually are spaced equally in each case (DE 100 179 84 A1).
The conveyors of known mowing and intake devices are well suited for harvesting plants with relatively thick stalks such as corn. When harvesting thinner and/or softer plant stalks such as, for example, grains or grasses, the conveying effect frequently proves insufficient because the plants are not adequately supported.
The invention is based on the objective of making available a conveyor that is suitable for a mowing and intake device of a machine for mowing stalk-like crops and that can also convey thinner and/or softer plants in a satisfactory fashion.